Stallions beat Rosewood in v-ball playoffs

Wednesday

Southwest not only played like a volleyball team Tuesday night that wants to make it to the NCHSAA 1-A championship in Raleigh but one that could find itself in Reynolds Coliseum on Nov. 3.

Southwest not only played like a volleyball team Tuesday night that wants to make it to the NCHSAA 1-A championship in Raleigh but one that could find itself in Reynolds Coliseum on Nov. 3.

On the surface, Rosewood looked superior. The Eagles were taller — a half-dozen of their players approach 6 feet tall — and feature an NCAA Division prospect in Ellen Morgan. But no points are given for appearances alone.

You have to show up. And while the Eagles did show up, the Stallions showed up even bigger, using gumption and guile to turn in their best game of the season to sweep past Rosewood 27-25, 25-20, 25-21 in the second round of the 1-A playoffs.

“We played with heart and very much intensity,” said Naya Burney, who had 8 kills and 8 assists. “We showed up ready to play. We played with fire. As a team, this has been by far the best game we’ve ever played together as one. This gives us the momentum to finish it out and go to states.”

Southwest (17-4), the No. 1 seed out of the Coastal Plains Conference, will travel to Princeton (15-6) on Thursday, although the time of the match hasn’t been set. Princeton, the No. 1 seed out of the Carolina Conference, beat Midway 3-0.

“We played like we wanted to go the state championship,” said SWO coach Bev Marley, who isn’t prone to make such pronouncements.

On this night, however, it was warranted against a team even she said was “probably,” better, on paper at least. The Stallions seemed to take advantage of every error by the Eagles, who lost their libero, or defensive specialist, Kayla Hardee to a knee injury during warm-ups.

And Southwest also played smart, rarely forcing a kill when the ball was likely destined to be blocked by the Eagles, who played above the net elbow to armpit while the smaller Stallions were usually at the wrist-to-elbow level.

Still, when the Stallions went for a kill they went strong, often battering the ball through a would-be block. And time and again the Stallions were returned ferocious spikes by the Eagles (16-9), the No. 2 seed out of the Carolina Conference.

“We played more powerful tonight,” Marley said. “We have not had to dig anything like that all season long. … So to make those adjustments so quickly was very, very exciting to watch as a coach.

“That was a very, very good volleyball team that we just played. That’s the best I’ve seen our girls play all season long, which is good for them to come back from playing such a slack game Saturday. … We played with a lot of heart.”

The Stallions, coming off a 3-0 win over James Kenan that didn’t please their coach, jumped out to a 5-1 lead in the opening set before falling behind, trailing 22-17 after a block by Anna Ingram on Burney.

Southwest was within one point of losing the set at 25-24 on another block. But the Stallions scored three straight points, the final two coming on a block by Amanda McCurry and a kill by Hali Botzenhart through a block.

Southwest led from start to finish in the second set, going up 16-11 on a kill by Alexis France and then sealing the set on a kill by Jessie Sbrocco and a net ball by the Eagles.

The Stallions looked headed to an easy victory in the third set up 18-11 after a kill by Taylor Marley on a ball that rolled along the net before falling to the floor. But the Eagles fought back within three points three times, but Southwest clinched the match on a kill by Burney through a block.

Before the match, Burney did a double-take when she saw the Eagles walk in.

“I said, ‘Lord…, they’re tall,’” Burney said afterward. “But, hey, we love competition. We’ve been playing with tall girls all along. We’re a short team. We found their weaknesses and did what we had to do.

“We just had to be smart. I would say that we stayed focused even though we had moments where weren’t focused. We came back together and said, hey, we’ve got to do this.”

Coach Marley agreed, saying the Stallions played their most consistent volleyball of the season while sticking to a game plan that changed as the game went on.

“We played to win,” she added. “That vision that you have as a coach to dominate, to hit their weak spots and to take our power to their weakness but to not have any holes in the floor — now they made some holes in the floor tonight with how hard they hit — but man what a great volleyball team.”